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Milk as a source of nutraceuticals and dairy based functional foods |
P. U. GALLMANN, Swiss Federal Dairy Research Institute (FAM), Liebefeld, Schwarzenburgstrasse 161, CH 3003 Bern, Switzerland and P. Jelen, Dept. of Agricultural, Food & Nutritional Science, Univ. of Alberta, 2-06 Agriculture-Forestry Centre, Edmonton, AB T6G 2P5, Canada. Milk is the only major biological material targeted for the specific purpose of nutrition; all other food raw materials exist primarily for other purposes. Thus, milk can be considered a “natural nutraceutical” containing numerous compounds present for specific nutritional needs or contributing physiological functionality. The range of known physiologically active compounds is still growing with research attributing new effects to specific milk constituents or discovering new physiologically active minor milk components. Although milk of all mammals is destined to feed young offspring with high demand for growth and specific immunological requirements, the suitability of cow’s milk for adults is sometimes questioned. Modern technology can adapt milk to specific demands of adults through processes such as lactose hydrolysis, selective fractionation or enzymatic modification. Building on the high content of nutritionally essential compounds, these technological modifications can result in dairy products with specific physiological functions. While milk itself does not fit the common definition of functional foods as tasty products fortified beyond the generally recognized nutritional value, it is a unique source of many compounds to be produced and/or extracted for commercial nutraceutical or functional food applications. Such compounds include whey proteins, bioactive peptides, milk fat with high contents of conjugated linoleic acids (CLA), short chain fatty acids and phospholipids, or oligosaccharides. Being an excellent growth medium for micro-organisms, milk can be transformed into fermented milk products supplying humans with living healthful probiotic bacteria, recognized to influence human health by preventing specific health problems and combatting some illnesses as diarrhoea. Using targeted dairy cultures, antihypertensive fermented dairy products can be obtained delivering increased ACE-inhibitory effects. Milk and technologically modified dairy foods are meeting growing consumer demands for pure products without unnatural additives, thus providing the same benefits as other artificially fortified functional foods.
Handout (.pps format, 1760.5 kb)
Session 25, Current status, trends and prospects of nutraceuticals and functional foods
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